America Obscura - by Joshua Foer & Dylan Thuras & Atlas Obscura (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the creative minds behind the #1 New York Times bestseller Atlas Obscura comes a road trip into the hidden heart of America--a love letter to the strange, fantastic, and beautiful corners of the United States.

America Obscura takes readers on a journey that stretches from shore to shore, in search of the country's folk rituals and roadside museums, its outsider artists and eccentric prophets, its forgotten dreamers and improbable visionaries who helped shape the landscape. Equal parts travel companion and cultural almanac, this is the definitive field guide to America's hidden marvels.

Start in Talkeetna, Alaska, where the whimsical 185-foot "Dr. Seuss House" stacks story upon story into the clouds, and watch the moon-driven bore tide of Turnagain Arm roll in like a liquid wall for sub-arctic surfers. Head south to Colorado to visit the International Snow Sculpture Championships, and then drift across the Great Plains to tour the world's largest collection of marbles in Nebraska. In New York, meet a ghostly white deer herd that roams a decommissioned nuclear weapons repository, and in Arizona dine at a pizza shop that also hosts concerts on a 6,000-pipe Wurlitzer organ.

With hundreds of breathtaking photographs, maps, and sample road trips, America Obscura is a vividly illustrated cabinet of curiosities from the award-winning chroniclers of the world's hidden wonders that revels in the unexpected, the overlooked, the bizarre, and the mysteriously awe-inspiring.

Pack your bags and prepare to be delighted and disoriented, pulled out of the familiar, and dropped into the astonishing as you become re-enchanted with this endlessly curious and surprising country.

About the Author

Powered by a global community of millions, Atlas Obscura is a media and experiences company dedicated to sharing the world's hidden places, incredible histories, scientific marvels, and gastronomical wonders. Atlas Obscura produces award-winning journalism and chart-topping podcasts, and has published three consecutive New York Times best selling books, with over 2 million copies in print.

Josh Foer is the co-founder and chairman of Atlas Obscura. He is the author of the #1 national bestseller Moonwalking with Einstein, which has been translated into 37 languages, and co-author of Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders, the bestselling travel book of the last decade. His writing has been published in the New Yorker, National Geographic, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine.

Dylan Thuras is the co-founder and creative director of Atlas Obscura. He is the co-author of three New York Times bestsellers: Atlas Obscura, Gastro Obscura, and The Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid. Dylan is the host of Brand USA's Small Town, Big Story TV series as well as the number one travel podcast in the US, The Atlas Obscura Podcast. Dylan lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Michelle, and two kids, Phineas and Jean.